302 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



CORN. 



THIS is the most abundant of the cereals, as well as one of the most important agri 

 cultural products cultivated in the United States. The corn-plant belongs to the natural 

 order G-raminae or grasses and is indigenous to America, where it formed the 

 principal food of the Indians, and for which reason it received the name of Indian corn. 



History states that Columbus found it cultivated quite extensively by the natives of 

 Hispaniola, while it was found in the possession of all the native tribes in portions of the con 

 tinent subsequently visited by explorers. 



Their implements of agriculture were, of course, of the rudest kind, the hoe often being 

 constructed from the scapula of the moose, a thin, sharp stone, or a crooked stick; still with 

 these imperfect utensils, and although they had but a few varieties of the grain, compared 

 with those of the present time, we learn from undoubted sources that they cultivated 

 several distinct varieties that answer in description to those with which we are familiar, such 

 as the Mandan, King Philip, Sioux, Squaw, Tuscarora, and probably sweet corn. 



In Nov. 25, 1620, some of the Pilgrims found corn that had been buried in the earth, 

 which, according to the description given, consisted of &quot; some yellow, and some red, and 

 others mixt with blue.&quot; We also read of the -white and yellow,&quot; and those of which &quot;the 

 graine be big.&quot; 



Cartier, in 1555, describes the maize at Hochelaga the Indian name for Montreal &quot;as 

 great, and somewhat bigger than small peason.&quot; Thus, numerous instances might be men 

 tioned to show that several varieties were in cultivation at that period. Corn is still found 

 growing in a wild state in many portions of the continent, and with each grain of the ear 

 covered with glumes or husks, that long cultivation has eradicated. It is supposed to be a 

 native of the table-lands of Mexico or Peru. Its cultivation was introduced from this con 

 tinent to Southern Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa, where it thrived and spread rapidly ; 

 it is not, however, grown in England to any extent, as the summer heat of that climate is 

 not sufficient to favor its successful production. 



It will grow in any portion of the United States, and readily adapts itself to different 

 soils and climates, but thrives best between the thirty-sixth and forty-second degrees of lati 

 tude, as it attains its most perfect development under a hot summer sun, growing rapidly and 

 ripening early, which renders it peculiarly adapted for this portion of the northern latitudes, 

 where the summers are short and warm, however severe the winters may be. In high north 

 ern latitudes, close attention to its culture is necessary, on account of the difficulty of ripen 

 ing it. The value of the corn crops annually produced in this country may, perhaps, be 

 justly estimated in a financial point of view as amounting to a certain number of millions of 

 dollars, but, in another sense, its value to this country is inestimable, when we consider the 

 effect of its cultivation in hastening its settlement and the continuance of its prosperity, en 

 tering, as it does, into the food of all classes of people, and also greatly cheapening and in 

 creasing the product of beef, pork, and mutton, besides the many other uses to which it is 

 appropriated, and the increased wealth of the nation resulting from the annual exportations 

 of this product. 



Immense as is the production of this staple, the average yield of corn in this country at 

 the present time is far below what it might, and ought to be, and what with a little more care 

 in cultivation might easily be attained. The average yield in the United States for the en 

 tire number of acres cultivated does not at present exceed thirty bushels per acre, while with 

 good culture it might be made to reach from sixty to a hundred bushels or more, and thus 

 the amount now produced be more than doubled, with its attendant benefits to the nation and 

 to the farmer individually. The farmers of this country are gradually learning more of the 



